This invention relates generally to the field of subsea systems, and more particularly to an Emergency Wellbore Intervention System.
As seen during the BP Maconda incident and consequent environmental damage, and other subsea oil operations, emergency well kills, when the drilling rig has lost the connection with a flowing well, consists of capping and drilling a relief well to kill the flow further down the well. Depending on the situation, this can be an extremely time consuming, expensive operation with sometimes uncertain results. Not only is the environment affected, livelihoods are disrupted and the economics of the affected area can end up having catastrophic outcomes.
The emergency wellbore intervention system of the present invention can reduce all of these problems, especially the time the wellbore fluid is flowing uncontrolled into the environment and polluting the area. It also allows for more time to ready the drilling of the relief well ensuring success or may even make drilling a relief well not even necessary. This can be easily fitted to an existing system with very little modification and can be done without requiring a shipyard visit.